Citadel To Launch New Funds, New Strategies

New York (HedgeCo.Net) – After a disappointing year, Citadel will launch several new hedge funds in hopes of countering the losses of their main hedge fund.

The multi-strat $10 billion Kensington Global Strategies Fund has fallen over 30 percent this year. CEO Ken Griffin attributed some of that loss to the temporary ban on short selling, saying it “created material dislocations across many of our portfolios and disrupted our ability to assume and manage risk.”

After much speculation and some bad press, Griffin warned investors last week that returns on the fund would experience “significant volatility” in the next few weeks.

The new funds will focus more on global macro, convertible arbitrage and fixed income strategies, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Griffin told investors, "The financial crisis dramatically raised the cost of borrowing and reduced the availability of credit to market participants, materially reducing the value of cash assets as compared to the value of derivative instruments.” He went onto explain how he did not foresee the financial crisis that has unfolded this past year.

While the Kensington Fund will still be available to investors, many clients are interested in allocating their assets across numerous strategies.